Lessons in Confidence from a Two-Year-Old

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Why do we care so much what others think about us?

We see everyone else as being better than us, that or everything seems to be wrong in their lives. Come on, you know those people. The ones that complain about the sun shining.

But I digress. Truth be told we do care what others think of us. We are human. We seem to have an innate desire to please others and be accepted. But shouldn’t people be accepting us for who we are, not who we appear to be when the room is staged perfectly?

Everyday is a learning experience for me from my children.

I let Batman (he’s 2½) pick out his own clothes everyday. Most the time they are mismatched but that’s okay. The other day we had to go to the doctors office and he insisted on wearing his training pants over his diaper. We are getting ready to potty train but haven’t gotten around to it yet. This was fine, no big deal. Then he insisted on wearing underwear ON HIS HEAD!

Yes, Underwear on his head… as a hat!

I was just about to tell him no when I thought, “why not?” It’s not hurting anyone, it doesn’t embarrass him. The only one to be embarrassed by it was going to be me, and if that’s how my child wants to show his individuality I should just get on board.

So I did.

We spent all day at the oncology clinic with underwear on his head. And you know what? Everyone thought it was fantastic. It made everyone smile. The doctors, the nurses, the other patients all commented on how wonderful it was. Batman was happy that he had his hat, and I was happy that we hadn’t started the morning with a fight about clothes.

At one point in the afternoon I looked at him and thought “I hope he never loses this confidence.” I do, I hope he always has the confidence to wear underwear on his head. At his age, if someone had laughed and made fun of him, he wouldn’t have cared. He would have continued to wear that underwear with pride because that’s what he wanted to do.

I learned a huge lesson that day.

In life we have times that we are terrified to move forward. Scared to start on the next journey or adventure. Most of that fear is from what others will think about it. The fear of being judged. The fear of not being accepted. We all need to have the confidence of a two year old and have that fear of judgment and acceptance be the furthest thing from our minds. If it makes you happy, and doesn’t hurt anyone else then GO FOR IT!

Wear that underwear on your head and wear it proudly!